Success is all about the measuring stick. Let’s peek at the success rates YCombinator has experienced with a few different measuring sticks.

1. Success as a business, got stupid rich: 50% although Paul indicates 25% is likely more reasonable over the long term
2. Everyone got paid, no one lost their shirts: 100%. Even the initial projects that didn’t continue as a business were able to somehow make enough money to pay back investors and then some.
3. Enjoyment and growth: 100%, “Whatever our long-term success rate ends up being, I think the rate of people who wish they’d gotten a regular job will stay close to 0%.”

It’s easy to peek in from the outside and read about a business failing and think ‘wow, they screwed that up, poor losers’. As always there’s more to it then you read in the papers.

Quote from Why to Not Not Start a Startup.

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